One area of our health that is all too often overlooked is gut health, which is odd since the gut processes everything we put into our mouths and transforms it into usable energy and nutrients for every other system in the body. Even though we all strive to satisfy the cravings of our stomach, what we consume isn’t usually prioritized to the degree that it should be for optimal well-being. In reality, a happy, healthy gut requires adequate amounts of fibre, healthy fats (minimally processed fats), water, pre/probiotics, and, ideally, a lifestyle that is not overly stressful. This post covers the basics of the relationship between the digestive system and mental/emotional/physical well-being as well as some practical tips that could help you improve your gut health.

Gut Health & Mental/Emotional Well-being

The chemical constitution of your microbiome (the combination of all the various microbes in your gut) directly affects your cognitive abilities and emotional integrity. When you eat mostly a varied plant-based fresh and/or organic foods diet, your stomach is consistently quite happy and releases chemicals that make you feel good and think clearly. This influence occurs predominantly via the vagus nerve. However, when you eat foods purely for enjoyment and truthfully not very healthy, they make you feel good in the short term due to a release of happy chemicals like serotonin. Sadly, after that initial boost of positivity, most of these kinds of foods negatively affect the mind/body and gut for hours or days. Because of a lack of vital nutrients, they have high amounts of synthetic additives and generally clog up digestion. Meaning the cons highly outweigh the pros. Plus, this kind of consumption reinforces a cycle of craving more unhealthy food and decreasing overall health.

Gut Health & Physical Well-being

When your gut is healthy, it can effectively break down and absorb the nutrients from the food you consume as well as eliminate the byproducts smoothly without wasting unnecessary bodily resources. This leads to less inflammation, increased ability to remove additional toxins, and facilitates a more optimal operation of other bodily systems. When the digestive system is healthy, what you eat will not lead to lethargy but an energized general state of being where you’re able to carry out all of your daily tasks with a degree of ease. Also, when the gut is healthy, the cells of the intestinal walls are strong, meaning the potential for leaky gut or increased intestinal permeability is minimized. This is extremely important because when intestinal permeability is increased, gaps between cells allow toxins to enter the bloodstream and interstitial fluid, which can lead to serious health concerns. Below are some generalized tips for optimal gut health if you’re looking to improve yours:

Things to START Doing to Improve Your Gut Health

• Drink more water (herbal tea counts)
• Prayer, meditation, or mindfulness practices
• Make sure you get adequate fiber 
• Read the labels on your food; if you can’t pronounce three or more things on the ingredients list, put the item back on the shelf
• Eat as much fresh, unprocessed food as you are able to, and as large a variety of them as possible
• Just because you want to eat it or everybody else around you is eating something, that doesn’t mean you should, practicing self-discipline is still an admirable thing to do
• Eat or drink fermented food or beverages; this helps to keep the healthy bacteria up in your gut (sauerkraut, kimchi, kombucha, just to name a few)

Things to STOP Doing to Improve Your Gut Health

• Reduce eating things that say fat-free, sugar-free, or cholesterol-free (usually, when these are removed from foods, the additives used to substitute for taste are far worse for you)
• Reduce consumption of alcohol, carbonation, coffee, sugar, meat, gluten, and excessively spicy foods.
• Reduce pharmaceutical medications over the counter and prescribed. Pain medications are very hard on your stomach, and antibiotics kill your microbiome, so if you need to take them, please replete with probiotics when you are finished

To better deal with your stress check out this post.

To just relax and unwind try our most popular yin video here.

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